GARHI KHUDA BUX - Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday said that his party will remain at war with political rival and ruling party PML-N.

Zardari was addressing a rally here on the 39th death anniversary of party founder and former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

“No matter what happens, we will remain at war with you [PML-N] because you are not democratic, you [Nawaz] are like a Mughal emperor,” said the former president.

Zardari also warned that his party would take the Punjab government ‘away’ from PML-N. He warned that just like the recently held elections for Senate chairmanship, he would not let the ruling party win the upcoming general elections in Punjab — a voting stronghold of PML-N.

“I had said six months back that I won’t let Nawaz get his party’s Senate chairman elected and I am saying now that we won’t let PML-N form its government in Punjab,” he said.

“No matter who we have to form an alliance with, we won’t do it with PML-N,” the PPP co-chairman said, adding his party will take Nawaz to the point of quitting politics. Zardari said he will force Nawaz Sharif to quit politics and would conquer ‘Takht-e-Lahore’.

He also accused the ruling party of joining hands with the establishment to conspire against PPP.

Discussing the recently-held elections for the Senate chairman and deputy chairman positions, he claimed Nawaz wanted to create rifts within PPP by nominating Raza Rabbani for Senate chairmanship. “But we foiled his attempt and strengthened democracy in Balochistan,” Zardari added.

Zardari ruled out possibility of negotiations with PML-N and said the Nawaz-led party had ‘stabbed PPP in the back with the help of establishment’.

The former president said he had already told Sharif brothers that he could send PML-N government packing whenever he wanted and he proved it.

PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto also addressed the party’s annual gathering and used the occasion to criticise political rivals, besides recalling achievements of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

He lashed out at Nawaz Sharif, calling him ‘heir of Ziaul Haq’.

“I laugh when people tell me that Nawaz has launched a movement to restore sanctity of vote,” Bilawal said, adding that the PML-N chief had attended just five National Assembly sessions in last four-and-a-half years.

Bilawal also took a dig at PTI Chairman Imran Khan and said the cricketer-turned-politician was a ‘brother’ of Taliban.

Bilawal claimed that Imran ‘is carrying flag of U-turns’. “PPP is the only party which can challenge and fight extremism and terrorism,” he said.

“Extremism is because of terrorism, which cannot be eliminated through military actions alone. We need to change curriculum and national policies,” he affirmed.

About development work in Sindh, Bilawal said provincial government had built 517 health facilities in Sindh in five years.

He claimed that Imran did not make ‘a single hospital or public sector university, and that Shehbaz Sharif inaugurated an ‘incomplete hospital’ in the same period.

“People know that Nawaz and Imran are trying to belittle each other for the sake of power but they won’t tell as to what formula they have to remove poverty at the ground level,” he said.

“Masses don’t care about ‘Mujhe Keun Nikala’ (Why I was expelled). They want their problems resolved and PPP is the only party which is busy resolving these problems including the provision of basic necessities of health, education and clean water.”

Bilawal maintained that his party respected judiciary. “We didn’t get justice from these courts. PPP suffered the most due to wrong decisions of the court but still we respect our institutions and are seeking justice for judicial murder of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.”

Bilawal reminded the PPP supporters of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s accomplishments.

“If Pakistan has nuclear bomb today, it’s the milestone achievement of ZA Bhutto. If labourers and peasants have any rights today, if you have a passport today, it’s because of Bhutto.”

“Bhutto is the name of an era. He united the Islamic countries as well as Arab states and gave concept of ‘Islamic bomb’ and Islamic currency. Not only Bhutto was martyred but Pakistan’s golden era was hanged.”

The PPP leader said that the people of Pakistan have the choice to opt for either the legacy of Ziaul Haq or Bhutto.

“There is a third one too, who is waving the flag of hypocrisy and whose agenda is U-turn,” Bilawal said. “Taliban’s long-lost brother Imran is an extension of Nawaz. Imran and Nawaz’s politics and hypocrisy is one and the same.”

“If Nawaz and Imran had done any work for the welfare of the people, they wouldn’t have been doing propaganda against us,” said the PPP leader.

Bilawal said that Nawaz’s ‘respect for vote’ campaign was a joke with the nation. “Someone who has never in his life respected the vote or sanctity of the Parliament is nowadays posing himself as a torchbearer of it,” he said.